Old Stanley bench planes turn up on eBay by the thousand, and plenty of them look rough. Most can be brought back. One antique-tool dealer writing in Popular Woodworking says he has restored more than 500 and gets a grimy plane presentable in about an hour. Another restorer puts a full user tune-up at around two hours, plus soaking time. The work is mostly cleaning, a little repair and a lot of sharpening. What decides whether a plane is a weekend project or a parts donor is what's wrong with it, so start with the listing photos.
Pick one with good bones
Patrick Leach's advice in his Blood & Gore notes on the Stanley bench planes is the place to start. Cracks in the main casting are the deal breaker, and they usually show up on the arched sides or around the mouth. Rust can hide them, so ask for clear photos of both sides. Here's what to look for in the photos.
- Cracks or welds on the body. Leach says to run from a plane whose front section has broken off and been welded back on, unless you only want its parts.
- Pitting. A few small pits on the sides won't hurt, but a badly pitted sole or iron is usually a lost cause.
- A twisted sole. Flatness is partly a matter of taste, Leach says, but a sole badly twisted along its length isn't worth fixing.
- A broken frog. Many have snapped at the top where the lateral lever sits, and some lever pins have worn through.
- A cracked lever cap around the screw hole. That one loosens in use, so pass on it.
Some damage looks worse than it is. A hole drilled through the body for hanging it on a hook, chips on the edge of the lever cap and small chips at the toe or heel don't affect how it cuts. If you're new to the different sizes, our No. 4 vs No. 5 guide covers which one to start with, and the No. 4 and the No. 5 pages list model-specific checks.
Strip it and clean it
Take the plane completely apart and keep track of every screw. Stanley used non-standard threads, so a hardware-store screw usually won't fit, and a screwdriver that fills the slot keeps you from chewing up the brass nuts. Both Popular Woodworking restorers degrease the small parts first and keep the body and frog out of anything harsh, because degreasers and long soaks soften the japanning, the black finish on the casting.
For rust, one scrapes off the scale with a sharpened scraper and then uses a rust remover and a fine abrasive pad, keeping the chemical off the japanning. The other soaks stubborn parts in Evapo-Rust. Both finish bare metal with a fine wire wheel, and the dealer protects every part with a rust preventive straight away, because freshly cleaned iron starts to rust almost at once. Japanning can be cleaned with a wax-and-oil cleaner and a toothbrush rather than stripped.
Fix the tote and knob
Leach doesn't worry about a cracked tote as long as it's tight and can be glued. The horn at the top often snaps off, and many have been patched with nails, screws or glue, so look closely. Totes also crack near the base, just above where they reach forward to the casting. Knobs chip and split around the base, especially the squat early knobs and the taller ones Stanley introduced around 1920. Planes from about 1929 on have a raised ring cast into the bed to support the knob, and that largely ended the problem.
One restorer scabs in patches of matching rosewood cut from broken old marking gauges, blends the repair with a rasp, strips the old finish and oils the wood. He notes that oil darkens rosewood a lot, and blond shellac keeps it lighter. He avoids glossy film finishes on handles, which can blister in use. Reproduction totes exist too, and on an ordinary user plane they're a perfectly good fix.
Sort out the iron and cap iron
Stanley irons are thin, and Leach says to make sure there's enough length left and to throw out a pitted one. The black stain where the cap iron sits is corrosion from trapped moisture and laps off quickly. Look for cracks on both faces, and for delamination near the bevel on the laminated irons Stanley used up to about WWII. The cap iron has to sit tight against the iron with no gap. Mushroomed ends from someone hammering the iron file off easily.
Modern replacement irons are thicker than Stanley's, and Leach warns that many won't fit without filing the mouth wider. Think hard before doing that, since it's a permanent change to the plane. One of the Popular Woodworking restorers reckons nine out of ten problems people have with old planes come down to an iron that isn't as sharp as they think or a cap iron that isn't flat. Spend your time there before you blame the plane.
Flatten the frog and sole
The frog should sit solidly on the body with no rocking, and the iron should sit solidly on the frog. One restorer files the frog face and its mating surfaces flat, using paint as a guide to where the file has touched. For the sole, he draws marker lines across it, retracts the iron, tightens everything as if for use and laps it on abrasive laid over a flat surface, starting at 80 grit and finishing at 220. When the marker is gone everywhere, it's done.
The dealer's tuning list is a good checklist once the plane is clean.
- Flatten the sole and ease its edges.
- Fit the cap iron to the iron.
- Flatten the frog and square it to the sole.
- Grind a straight or slightly curved edge, depending on the job.
- Adjust the cap screw's pressure, the cap iron's setback and the mouth.
Leach adds that any nicks standing proud of the sole should be filed off, since they'll scratch the work.
Leave the paint alone unless it's gone
One restorer's rule is to leave the japanning if about two-thirds of it is still good, and repaint only when more is missing. That's a user's rule. Repainting a plane ends its interest to a collector, and Leach's advice to collectors is to make sure the japanning is original and matches between frog and body. If you think a plane might be early or uncommon, check it against our type study cheat sheet first. The Popular Woodworking restorer says the same thing in plainer words. Get other opinions before you scrub a plane you think is valuable.
When to walk away
A welded or cracked casting, a badly pitted sole, a frog broken at the top or a lever cap cracked at its screw hole all mean you'd be rebuilding the plane from someone else's parts. That can still make sense when the price is low and you want the tote, iron or frog, but it isn't a restoration. Everything else on this page is a few evenings of work, and the plane you end up with will cut as well as any you can buy new.
If you're deciding how much originality to pay for, read user grade vs collector grade. To see what's for sale now, start with bench planes or browse everything.
